Just short of justice

The Jersey Journal is reporting that Guttenberg Mayor David della Donna and his wife, Anna, have both been convicted of three charges and acquitted on two others. The trial has served as a means of showcasing how small-town government should not work. However, it may turn out to be a case of how not to prosecute as well.

The brief in the Journal says that the couple's son protested prosecution witness Luisa Medrano's deal with the federal attorney. If he is correct that she will not be prosecuted at all; then he has more than just a valid point - he has his finger on an outrageous miscarriage of justice. Yet again, no mention of Deputy Chief of Staff Javier Inclan in all the discussion of guilty persons - a severe oversight in both reporting and in prosecution.

The indictment of Medrano (pdf) lists her as "knowingly and willfully conspir[ing] ... to commit the following offenses":

1) to bring aliens to the United States
2) to provide and obtain the labor and services of persons by threats of serious harm to and physical restraint
3) to ...obtain...persons for labor and services in violation of the law, including forced labor
(charges edited for brevity)

If this person actually gets out of spending a significant part of her life in jail - perhaps something like "two days prior to the day she dies" - then the prosecution really did no justice no favors. I understand that reduced sentencing is a tool to help ensure cooperation of key witnesses, but this woman should not get away with murder.

If one reads the indictment, murder is exactly what this woman is guilty of, as well. What else do you call it when a woman is forced to take abortion-inducing medication, gives birth to a live baby, and then that baby dies shortly thereafter? Medrano's hands may not have choked the life out of that infant, but she was the one that gave the orders. It was her decisions that caused a child to be born to early to survive - so the child's mother could go back to "shake her money maker" at the male patrons of Medrano's bars.

And of course, Javier Inclan cannot pretend that there is no blood on his hands. His hands took the blood-money from Yogi Rogers and handed it to David della Donna. It was Inclan's responsibility to ensure all donations to the Guttenberg Dems was documented and handled legally. He failed to do so. Perhaps if he had spoken up a little sooner, a tiny corpse might not have been handed over to medical authorities. That this man gets up in the morning and goes to work in the Governor's office is a sickening offense to the decency of every taxpayer in New Jersey.

If Javier Inclan or Luisa Medrano want absolution; they should talk to a priest. Jesus forgives, but he doesn't offer to spare us the consequences of violating the law of the land or the law of decency. The only difference between Inclan and Medrano is that he has the Governor's ear. He wears a suit and tie and looks out at the world from guilty eyes.